


lower me down slow

by larkgrace



Series: generator nineteenth floor [1]
Category: Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard - Rick Riordan
Genre: (annabeth calls someone a less polite version of butt), Gen, Hurt/Comfort, feat. blitz and hearth being the world's best dads, sensory processing disorder, t for language, the perthro family makes me feel things
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-02
Updated: 2015-11-02
Packaged: 2018-04-29 14:31:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,201
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5131094
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/larkgrace/pseuds/larkgrace
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Magnus is not having a good day.</p><p>Luckily he has a small but mighty magical family to help him out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	lower me down slow

**Author's Note:**

> as soon as i finished reading mango cheese i hopped onto twitter and cried about how magnus absolutely definitely has spd. caden [goinghost](http://archiveofourown.org/users/goinghost) cried along with me. you can blame her for at least half of this on the grounds of being a wonderful enabler.
> 
> title is from "generator (second floor)" by freelance whales.

Annabeth was not a party girl by any stretch of the imagination. Being a demigod meant that crowds and pounding music were dangerous, because it would always be too easy for a monster to slip past her guard when she was distracted by the noise and movement and flashing lights.

On the other hand, being a college student meant that parties were becoming a part of her normal life. Being a demigod _and_ a college student meant that when she visited Boston under the pretense of catching up with an old cabin-mate (which was true), she also picked up her dead cousin and his Viking friends so they could tag along.

She hopped off the train at the South Station and spotted Magnus sitting on a bench a few yards down the platform, watching Hearthstone signing something that involved a lot of smiles and fake shocked expressions. Samirah al-Abbas was inspecting a shimmering pair of gloves that Blitzen held up for her, a deep purple hijab covering her hair that gave off the faint glitter of disguised magic. Annabeth took a moment to study the sign over her head which informed her that the Green Line connection platform was down the stairs behind her, so instead of fighting through the crowd in the opposite direction she called out, “Hey, Magnus!”

Magnus jumped and turned to scan the crowd before he saw her and visibly relaxed. Hearthstone gave her a short salute—the sign for _hello,_ which Annabeth knew only because Magnus had insisted on teaching her the extreme basics of ASL before introducing her to Hearth. She could fingerspell the alphabet and count through twenty, but the grammatical structure of sign still left her head spinning. Blitzen raised a hand in greeting and started tugging on the gloves while Samirah nodded and looped the strap of her purse (which was small and serviceable and had a pocket for a throwing knife on the strap) across her body. The four of them pushed against the tide of office workers with briefcases in the middle of their five o’clock commutes until Annabeth could lead them down the stairs and away from the crush of bodies. They finally emerged onto their platform, which was slightly less busy than the one upstairs, so that Annabeth could turn and say, “Hi.”

“It’s good to see you again, Annabeth,” Sam said. “So…where is this party?”

“It’s on Emerson’s campus,” Annabeth said.

Blitz scoffed. “College students,” he grumbled. “They wouldn’t know class if it bit them in the—“

Sam punched his shoulder. Hearth put a hand over his mouth to hide a smile. Magnus brought the drawstrings of his hoodie up to his mouth, chewed on them, and stayed silent.

The subway ride was uneventful; for the most part the commuters were listening to music with earbuds in or checking their smartphones. Magnus squeezed himself into the end seat next to Annabeth and pressed himself as close to the handrail as possible, drawing his legs underneath the seat. Annabeth accidentally jostled him with her elbow as she unbuttoned her coat, and he flinched. “Are you okay?” she asked.

Magnus mumbled, “’M fine,” and closed his eyes, crossing his arms and turning his head away.

She glanced around. Sam shook her head as if to say, _I don’t know what his deal is either._ Across the aisle, Hearth pointed to Magnus, then curved his wrists in to press his fingertips into his chest and slumped his shoulders dramatically. Blitz said, “He says Magnus is pretty tired. Apparently he’s been kind of off all day.”

Magnus didn’t say anything, but pulled the sleeves of his jacket down over his fingers and balled the fabric up in his fists.

They changed lines at Park Street. The Green Line was more crowded, so the five of them crowded in the middle of the car and held on to the handrails. The whole ride, Magnus flinched whenever he swayed into Blitz’s side.

Annabeth grabbed his elbow as they exited the metro at Boyleston. “You okay?” she asked.

Magnus tugged his arm away. “Fine.” He stomped off after Sam.

Annabeth exchanged a look with Hearth, who frowned and tapped Blitz’s shoulder. Blitz looked up and Hearth raised his index and middle fingers to his own eye level, pressed together, then moved them in Magnus’s direction. Then he raised both hands to his forehead in crooked salutes and waved them back and forth a few times, and finished by pointing to himself.

“Yeah, me too,” Blitz said.

When they reached the address, her half-brother Jonah was waiting in the lobby to greet them. “Annabeth!” he called. “Glad you could make it. I don’t get to see many of the guys from camp up here.”

“Maybe we’d visit you more often if you hadn’t run away to Massachusetts,” she said, and hugged him. “Or were you really _that_ embarrassed after I destroyed you on the climbing wall?”

“This is how you treat your big brother, huh? Asshole.” Jonah smiled. “These guys are your friends?”

“Yeah,” she replied, then turned to face the rest of the group. “Everyone, this is my half-brother Jonah,” she said, and watched as Blitz fingerspelled the name. “Jonah, this is my cousin, Magnus.” Jonah offered a hand. Magnus stared at it for a moment, then slowly extended his own to shake Jonah’s; he didn’t allow for more than a heartbeat of skin contact before yanking his hand free and running it across his jeans, like he was wiping something off. Jonah’s smile flickered. Annabeth cleared her throat. “This is his friend Samirah—“

“Sam is fine,” she said, clasping her hands behind her back and nodding.

“And Blitzen and Hearthstone,” Annabeth finished. Hearth slid his palms across each other, pressed his fists together, index fingers extended, and then pointed to Jonah. _Nice to meet you._ Annabeth remembered that one.

“Hush now, everybody but my mother calls me Blitz,” Blitz protested.

“Glad you all could make it!” Jonah held the door open. “Hope you guys don’t mind taking the stairs. Someone spilled glitter in the elevator and they’re still cleaning it.”

Jonah and Annabeth led the way up three flights of stairs, with Hearth and Blitz behind them and Sam and Magnus bringing up the rear. Jonah leaned closer to Annabeth and said, “So, your cousin…”

“Yeah?” she asked, fist clenching, remembering his surprise at Magnus’s behavior. Grouchy or not, Magnus was still family.

“Which side of the family is he on?”

Annabeth relaxed. “My dad’s side.”

Jonah glanced behind them to check for eavesdroppers. Apparently satisfied that nobody was listening, he asked, “So how much does he know about, y’know, Mom’s side?”

“He knows everything,” Annabeth said. Jonah’s eyes widened, and she added, “He’s like us…sort of. It’s kind of complicated, but you can trust him. Just maybe don’t ask him about his own parents, at least not until Chiron or someone from camp gets in contact with you.”

Jonah nodded. “And what about his friends?”

“Sam’s like us. Hearth and Blitz aren’t, though. They’re even stranger, if you can believe it,” she said. “I can’t really give you any details, but they’re just as trustworthy as Magnus.”

“I believe you.” Jonah shot Annabeth a sideways look. “One last question, if that’s okay.”

She snorted. “When have I ever been able to stop you from asking a question?”

Jonah didn’t laugh. “A few weeks ago, the last time you came up here, you said you were looking for your missing cousin. I’m assuming you meant this guy.” When Annabeth nodded, Jonah continued, “I saw his obituary in the paper the next day. They said he was dead. Fallen off a bridge. They’d pulled his body from the river. He had the same name and face.”

Annabeth could picture the obituary clearly. She still had it memorized word for word. She and her dad had been the ones to confirm the identity of Magnus’s old body. She’d seen the gaping wound in his gut herself.

“It’s complicated,” she repeated.

Jonah frowned. “Explain later?”

“Maybe,” she allowed. “I know how much you hate not knowing, but it isn’t my story to tell.”

Jonah nodded. “Okay. This is us, everyone!” he announced, opening the door to the fourth floor landing. There was a door down the hall hanging open, with a heavy bassline reverberating in the floor and a small gaggle of people crowding the doorway. “There’s the birthday boy!” one of them yelled.

“Yeah, is the other birthday boy still here, or did he ditch his own party?” Jonah called back. He turned around so Hearth could read his lips. “Stay as long as you’d like. I think someone’s starting a euchre tournament down in the floor lounge later if you want to join in. Have fun!”

He plunged into the crowd inside the dorm room and Annabeth lost sight of him.

“Good to see you, too!” she yelled. She looked behind her. Blitz had his nose wrinkled in disdain, giving one boy’s stained sweatpants a dubious look, but he patted Hearth’s arm reassuringly as Hearth jumped when the music seemed to make the entire room vibrate. Sam stayed close to the wall, her arms crossed defensively as she leaned closer to Magnus, obviously trying to say something in his ear, but she had to shout to be heard.

A tall girl—a volleyball player, if her jacket was any indication—pushed through the doorway, crashing into Magnus’s shoulder. Magnus’s hands flew up to his mouth, he heaved like he was going to vomit, and then he yanked the hood of his jacket over his head and crouched on the floor, shaking.

“Magnus!” Annabeth yelled. She pushed back through the crowd. Sam was already kneeling next to him, her hand on his shoulder, and as Annabeth went to do the same she felt someone grab onto the back of her coat.

Hearthstone stepped in front of her and knelt in front of Magnus, not touching him, barely in arms’ reach. Carefully, he reached for Sam’s wrist and gestured for her to move her hand away, then he tapped on Magnus’s kneecap once. Magnus flinched again but looked up, his hands still covering his ears, his eyes glassy and distant underneath his hood.

Hearth signed something short that Annabeth couldn’t see, since his back was to her, but behind her Blitz said, “You should go find your friend and ask him if there’s a quiet place around here for us to crash. Magnus needs to get out.”

Annabeth nodded, her worry subsiding as a plan clicked into place. “Right,” she said. “Can you and Hearth help him while I find Jonah?”

“Got it,” Blitz said, as Magnus shakily got to his feet and Hearth cleared a path towards the door.

“Sam, do you see Jonah?” Annabeth asked. Sam pushed off the wall and stood on her toes, methodically scanning the crowd, and then waved her arm high in a commanding gesture.

“We need somewhere quiet,” Sam said as Jonah came into view.

“What’s wrong?” he asked. Annabeth could see him go on high alert, his gaze jumping from person to person as his fingers twitched toward his belt. She wondered how many knives he had tucked into his waistband.

“Nothing’s attacking,” Annabeth promised him. “It’s Magnus. He’s getting seriously overwhelmed.”

“Right,” Jonah said, then reached into his pocket and produced a wallet. “Follow me. You can crash in my room.”

“Here?” Sam asked.

“Mine’s upstairs!” he said as the music picked up again. “This is my friend’s room. We have the same birthday. Come on, it’ll be quiet up there.”

In the hallway, Hearth was signing a question to Magnus, though Annabeth couldn’t tell what it was. Magnus nodded slowly, hands still over his ears. Blitz put a finger to his lips to hush them before they could speak. Blitz signed to Samirah, who nodded and flicked her hands as if saying, _go._ Annabeth gave Jonah a gentle shove, and he led Blitz, Hearth, and Magnus down the hall.

Sam and Annabeth hung back. As soon as the hallway door closed, Sam asked, “Has this happened before?”

Annabeth sifted through her hazy memories of the last time she’d seen Magnus before the funeral home. She’d been…seven? It had been the last family Christmas before Randolph had cut off contact with them. She remembered Randolph forcing them both into matching (hideous) sweaters for a family photo. Magnus had complained about the fabric, and the cut of the sweater, tugging at the turtleneck and pulling up the sleeves to scratch his skin until it turned red and raw. Aunt Natalie had helped him out of it and let him pick an over-washed t-shirt to wear while Randolph fumed in the background. That had been the same Christmas that Magnus had broken down crying in the middle of exchanging presents, after complaining that the holiday music and Bobby and Matthew yelling was too loud. And, of course, Uncle Randolph had nearly thrown a fit after Magnus had refused to eat the Christmas turkey, saying it made his tongue feel icky, and had instead eaten nothing but mashed potatoes. Aunt Natalie had finally asked him if it was “a bad day,” and when Magnus had nodded mutely, she’d bundled him up in blankets and sent him upstairs with a sippy cup of water to nap.

“Yeah,” Annabeth said. “I think it has.”

“What can we do?” Sam asked.

“Be quiet and let him calm down on his own?” Annabeth shrugged. Jonah opened the door again, alone this time. “I don’t know. You’ve been around him more than I have recently.”

“This hasn’t happened around me before,” Sam argued.

“I think your other friends have got it under control,” Jonah said as they trudged upstairs. “I live on a quiet floor, so if anyone gets really noisy you can come get me and I’ll report it to the RA.”

“Do you remember anything else from when this happened?” Sam asked.

Annabeth remembered sitting in a study with a bag of…dominoes? She’d been building a temple out of them, and Magnus had a little pile to himself that he clicked together, humming happily. He’d rubbed the dominoes in his hands whenever Randolph’s shouts carried up the stairs.

“I think having something to fidget with helps,” she said. “Stones, maybe, or beads.”

Sam nodded, and Jonah led them into a different hallway. He stopped at the first door and swiped his ID in the scanner, opening the door slowly when the light flashed green. He led them into a small common room. Hearth and Blitz were sitting together on the couch, their heads bent together as Hearth signed to Blitz; there were three other doors, one of which was hung with a Pink Floyd poster and firmly shut, another of which had a sign that read “MOANING MYRTLE IS:” with a piece of paper hung up that read “IN” (Annabeth guessed that this was a bathroom), and a third door sporting a blown-up photograph of the leaning tower of Pisa with a caption that read “You Had One Job.” This last door was cracked open, and Annabeth could see Jonah casting worried glances at it.

Sam strode to the last door and opened it slowly. Magnus was curled up on the floor, clutching what looked like several blankets around his shoulders, facing away from the door and visibly trembling. Sam crossed the room and walked around his feet to kneel by his head. Blitz stiffened, but Annabeth watched as Magnus slowly lifted a blanket off of his face.

Sam reached up the sleeve of her shirt and pulled out a small bracelet. From what Annabeth could see, it appeared to be made of tiny polished beads. Sam held it out to Magnus, who cautiously extended a hand to take it. He scraped the beads together, then pulled the blankets back over his head, but at least he’d stopped shaking.

Sam stood and made her way back out into the common room. Jonah silently excused himself. Annabeth dropped into the uncomfortable armchair by the window.

Sam glanced at her phone. She tapped on the screen for a moment, then held it up to display a new note that read _Grandma is gonna kill me. Call if Magnus needs help?_

Hearth nodded. Annabeth reached out and squeezed Sam’s hand, and then Sam let herself out.

…

Annabeth woke with a start, a crick in her neck from sleeping in the chair. Blitz shifted on the couch where he was curled up with Hearth, who sat up, blinking owlishly in the dark.

Magnus shuffled out, his hood still up and Sam’s bracelet clenched in his hand. The microwave clock informed Annabeth that she’d been asleep for almost seven hours.

“Hi,” Magnus croaked.

“Hey, kiddo,” Blitz said. “Feeling better?”

“Mmph. Kinda.” Magnus rubbed his eyes, which were puffy and bloodshot, like he’d been crying.

Hearth made a fist and tapped it with his middle finger, eyebrows raised questioningly. Magnus shook his head.

“Do you need anything?” Annabeth asked, trying to use the same soothing voice she brought out for new campers.

Magnus grimaced. “Please, just—speak normally, okay?” He tugged one of his sleeves down over his hand. “I’m okay. But, uh, water would be nice, I guess.”

“There’s a vending machine downstairs,” Blitz said. “You think you can handle going outside?”

Magnus nodded. “Yeah.”

They made their way down the stairs. On one of the landings, Magnus looked up at Annabeth and said, “Thanks.”

Annabeth smiled. “Any time.”

“Don’t hug back,” he warned, then dove in and wrapped his arms around her shoulders in the world’s quickest hug. Then he thundered down the staircase to catch up with Blitz and Hearth.

Sam was waiting for them under the building’s awning. Magnus gave her back the bracelet, making sure their fingers didn’t touch as he asked, “So was that a present from your _boyfriend?”_

“What if it was?” Sam demanded, blushing.

“Thanks anyway. All of you.” He signed _thank you_ to Hearth, touching his fingers to his mouth and moving them away like he was blowing a kiss. Hearth smiled.

“It’s almost sunrise, so I gotta get going,” Blitz said. He sounded suspiciously teary as he added, “You let me know if you need anything, alright, kid?”

Magnus nodded. “Of course. Go. Can’t have the world’s greatest dwarf turning into a well-dressed statue on us.”

“I’d be the best-dressed statue in Boston,” Blitz agreed, then offered his hand. Magnus bumped his knuckles with the hand covered by his sleeve. Blitz tapped Hearth’s shoulder to get his attention, told Sam, “Make sure he gets to the hotel, alright?” and left.

Annabeth checked her watch. “Magnus—“

“You’ve got a train to catch, right?” he asked. “Don’t worry about it.”

“We’ll get him back safe,” Sam promised.

Hearth traced his finger across his heart in an _X_ pattern, which Annabeth was fairly sure wasn’t actually sign language, but appreciated nonetheless. Then he pointed to Magnus, made the _F_ sign with both hands, and moved them in an arc away from his body until they met, completing a half circle.

“He said,” Sam added, smiling, “Magnus is family.”

**Author's Note:**

> magnus has sensory processing disorder, a condition which basically means that the way his brain processes sensory input is a little different from most people's. i think the best metaphor i ever heard used to describe it was like there's a guy operating a sensory switchboard in everyone's brain, but in the brain of someone with sensory issues, the switchboard operator fell asleep and now the sliders are all out of whack. some of them are moved up way too high (sensory input is overwhelming, such as magnus getting overwhelmed by the loud noises or other people touching him), and some are turned down too low. [here's](http://floor19.tumblr.com/post/131117988820/actuallyadhd-riseabovedefeat) a nice slideshow about helping a loved one through sensory overload.


End file.
